"Unacceptable"

Longtime ÖVP Member Leaves Vienna Economic Association

Maria Rauch-Kallat has resigned from the Vienna Economic Association.(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Former ÖVP Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat has resigned from the Vienna Economic Association. “Because I cannot accept the president’s behavior,” she explained on Facebook on Monday. “Unfortunately,” she added, she must nevertheless remain in the Chamber of Commerce.

On Facebook on Monday, 77-year-old Rauch-Kallat announced: “I resigned today because I cannot accept the president’s behavior and the top officials’ endorsement of it.” “That’s not what the ÖVP is about!” she added.

“Message Deleted Without Being Read”
After the former ÖVP minister sent an email to the Economic Association, a reply came back promptly. She was very disappointed by it. “Your message was deleted unread,” read the presumably automatically generated reply. This prompted Rauch-Kallat to address the Economic Association directly on Facebook. “Maybe the message will be read here,” she wrote in her post.

“Krone” Published Transcripts of Conversations
As reported by “Krone, ” Walter Ruck, head of the Wirtschaftsbund and president of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, is alleged to have not only disparaged party colleagues and industry representatives but also made disrespectful remarks toward women. Furthermore, Ruck is said to have boasted about the influence he exerted over the ÖVP’s candidate list and appointments. As a result, he was expelled from the party on Friday evening.

Harsh Criticism from the Former ÖVP Minister 
Rauch-Kallat wrote in her post that “the president’s statement that he never confirmed the alleged remarks” says it all. “He never denied them either!” the former National Council member noted. Based on her experience, the statements seem “absolutely convincing and credible.”

Rauch-Kallat Changed Federal States
Although she resigned from the Vienna Economic Association, Rauch-Kallat remains loyal to the Economic Association as a whole. She would have preferred to join the federal leadership directly, as she “greatly appreciates the work of President and Chairwoman Martha Schultz and her Secretary General Tanja Graf, but—unlike in the ÖVP—that is unfortunately not possible.” Instead, the former minister has found a new home in the Upper Austrian Economic Association.

“Unfortunately, I have to remain a member”
As an entrepreneur in Vienna, the 77-year-old “unfortunately has to remain a member” of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. However, she cannot understand how “so many highly respectable officials—both men and women—remain silent in the face of all these allegations, thereby tolerating this behavior, stonewalling in the relevant committees, and thus causing considerable harm to their own community of like-minded people!” She hopes that “all those men who are NOT like that will also speak up and draw the appropriate conclusions.”